Infinix HOT 30 5G: Price in India
Infinix HOT 30 5G has been launched in two RAM and storage options. The base variant offers 4GB RAM and 128GB storage, which costs Rs 12,499 and the top model includes 8GB RAM and 128GB storage, which costs Rs 13,499. The smartphone comes in two color variants – Aurora Blue and Night Black. We had the 8GB RAM variant (Aurora Blue) of the HOT 30 5G with us for review. Let us know that the new handset has been launched at almost the same price, in which the HOT 20 5G was launched last year.
Infinix HOT 30 5G: Design and display
Infinix has taken good care of making the new HOT 30 5G attractive. There are some changes to be seen in comparison to the previous HOT 20 5G model such as the sensor in the camera module is now fitted inside the big ring and a hole-punch cutout has been given on the front. For selfie enthusiasts, the company has fitted an LED flash between the top frame and the display, which is placed behind the bezel, making it invisible. The back panel sports a frosted glass-like finish with a gradient pattern, while the panel is made of polycarbonate. At the same time, chrome finish has been given in the frame, but plastic has been used in it. The good thing is that despite being a budget segment smartphone, thin bezels are seen in the HOT 30 5G and the chin has also been kept relatively low.
The power button along with the volume rockers is placed on the right side of the frame. The power button comes equipped with a fingerprint sensor. The placement of all the buttons is good, so that I did not find it difficult to reach them while using them with one hand. At the same time, the triple slot SIM tray is included on the left side. The bottom of the frame houses a Type-C port, speaker grille, microphone and 3.5mm headphone jack, while the top houses a secondary speaker for stereo sound. Here you do not get a secondary mic for noise cancellation. Overall, the smartphone looks good at first glance considering the price. However, with a thickness of 9.1mm and a weight of 215 grams, the phone feels chunky. In particular, users with smaller palms may find it a bit uncomfortable to use it with one hand. The good thing is that despite being affordable, the smartphone is equipped with an IP53 rating, which should help you not to worry about the phone getting damaged due to dust and minor water splashes.
HOT 30 5G gets a 6.78-inch full-HD+ IPS display, which supports 120Hz refresh rate. Display performance is decent, with both scrolling and transitions in the UI feeling smooth. Infinix claims that the display supports 240Hz touch sampling rate, which is detected during gaming. The high touch sampling rate enhances the experience while playing games like BGMI, COD: Mobile. The display supports peak brightness of 580 nits. The company says that the DRE (Dark Region Enhancement) feature has been given in it, which will make it easier to read the text on the display even when there is sunlight. However, I did find it a bit difficult to read text under direct sunlight.
The display is large, so it will suit those who stream a lot of content. Talking about quality, the display is sharp and HDR performance is also good. I would take the color a little over saturated. There is no option to change the color profile here, but you can set the color temperature between cool, warm and warm. The display comes equipped with Widevine L1 certification. Overall, the performance of the display is good for streaming content.
Infinix HOT 30 5G: Specifications and software
The Infinix HOT 30 5G gets the MediaTek Dimensity 6020 chipset, which is also included in the recently launched Realme Narzo 60 5G. The smartphone comes equipped with 14 5G bands to ensure good 5G connectivity. This includes dual-band Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 5.1, NFC, and GPS. The phone comes with stereo speakers, which are loud. Another nice addition is the triple slot SIM tray, which can accommodate two SIMs as well as a microSD card. It has a large 6,000mAh battery, which supports fast charging up to 18W. The charging brick comes in the box as well as a Type-C cable. The phone comes with USB Type-C 2.0 port.
Infinix HOT 30 gets XOS version 13 based on Android 13. In the first boot, you will find the phone loaded with several native and third-party apps. There are many apps in this that you probably install first on a new phone, but if you do not want to use them, you can easily uninstall them. The good thing is that apart from a few notifications from the Palm Store, I didn’t get spammed with notifications from any other app during my use. The UI is simple, with an app drawer and scrolling down from one side of the screen to bring up the notification panel and the other to the shortcut panel. Swiping right from the homescreen brings up the feed panel, where details like workout data, phone usage, recent apps are visible. There are several widgets to choose from, one of which is called ‘Suggestions’, which gives you several options by swiping right inside a box, such as recent apps, schedule, to-do’s. It also keeps giving you suggestions like rain alert, steps, alarm, dual clock.
Infinix HOT 30 5G: Performance and Battery
The HOT 30 5G performs well in everyday tests. Thanks to the Dimensity 6020 chipset, the phone handles multi-tasking, social media browsing and app loading well. The app installation process was also fast. RAM management was very poor, despite having 8GB of RAM. Even with a few apps in the background, every minimized app was reloading after a while.
Coming to the benchmarks, the Infinix HOT 30 5G managed a score of 382,089 on AnTuTu. It got a single-core score of 699 and a multi-core score of 2020 on Geekbench. At the same time, it got 12 Fps, 21 Fps and 52 Fps scores in GFXBench’s Car Chase, Manhattan 3.1 and T-Rex test respectively. All the scores make the HOT 30 5G stand out among the rivals.
The new chipset is not made for heavy gaming. While casual gamers may enjoy playing graphics demanding games, they may experience slight lag in these games. I played mobile games like Call of Duty: Mobile, BGMI and Asphalt 9 on the smartphone which default to medium graphics settings. They had longer loading times and I also encountered occasional frame drops and lag during gameplay. However, it didn’t make my gaming experience crummy. The high-touch sampling rate helped well with games like BGMI and COD: Mobile. You won’t need earphones for many games thanks to the loud stereo speakers. Another good thing was that even after playing BGMI continuously for about an hour, the smartphone did not heat up.
The biggest highlight of the HOT 30 5G is its massive 6,000mAh battery, which promises long backup. The phone lasted around 17 hours in our HD video loop test, which is a good time. With day-to-day usage like a few hours of video streaming, a few hours of using social media apps and half an hour of gaming, the phone easily lasted more than a day. However, getting 18W charging support with such a big battery was a bit disappointing. The phone charged up to 28 percent in 30 minutes with the bundled charger and took about two hours to fully charge.
Infinix HOT 30 5G: Camera
Dual rear camera setup is available in Infinix HOT 30 5G, which includes a 50-megapixel primary sensor equipped with an f / 1.6 aperture and another AI camera sensor for depth. It also has a quad LED flash in the back. For selfies and video calling, the front includes an 8-megapixel sensor with dual LED flash.
The main sensor takes decent pictures in daylight. The photos were sharp and had plenty of details. At the same time, the color should also come natural in the pictures taken in the day light. However, the dynamic range performance was a bit disappointing. The background was overexposed in some shots, while the highlights were underexposed in some, but this happened occasionally. The camera detected the edges of the subject well, which resulted in natural bokeh in most portrait shots. There may be a lack of macro mode or camera in the setup, but the shots taken on 50MP mode in daylight come equipped with good details, which you can crop.
Top to Bottom: Primary Camera
The primary camera performs above average even in low light. Indoors, noise was visible in the viewfinder when taking pictures, but software processing removed the noise after the shot was captured. However, due to this many times the details from the picture were also washed out. Even in low-light, the dynamic range in the pictures was not consistent. At the same time, the colors in the pictures were also over saturated. However, with basic editing the low-light photos are ready to go on Instagram.
First: AI Camera, Second: Super Night Mode
If you are not happy with the night shots on the default mode or you are clicking pictures at night in a place full of artificial light, then you can use the night mode, which improves the pictures by increasing the dynamic range, details and sharpness.
Selfies taken in daylight turned out well. There was natural tone on the face and there was no lack of details in the pictures. Edge detection was also accurate in portrait mode. At the same time, shots taken at night with artificial light were also above average. If there is a lack of light, it is compensated by the dual LED front flash present in it. With the flash the shots can be improved to some extent. Although noise was captured in the shots at times, but most of the shots were good with dynamic range. Night mode was not available in Selfie.
Videos can be recorded at maximum 2K 30fps from both the front and rear camera sensors. Videos captured in daylight and indoor lighting were average. The video wasn’t lacking in details, but the shots were quite shaky. Also, jitter was observed in the viewfinder as well as in the captured video. A Bokeh feature has also been added to the camera app, which works to add blur behind the subject in the video, but due to poor edge detection here, the Bokeh effect looks quite artificial.
Infinix HOT 30 5G: Should you buy it?
Infinix has HOT 30 5G It strikes a good balance between price and hardware specs. The presence of stereo speakers along with the large display and big battery makes it an ideal device for content streamers. At the same time, the MediaTek Dimensity 6020 chipset at this price makes it a good option for casual gamers as well. The IP53 rating and dual-band Wi-Fi are good additions at this price. In terms of design too, the smartphone keeps pace with its rivals.
However, 18W charging definitely falls short in terms of bigger batteries and the trend. Nevertheless, at a starting price of Rs 12,499, it offers a good combination of features, which are a bit difficult to find in other smartphones in this price range.
If you can put up with average low-light camera performance and relatively slow charging, the Infinix HOT 5G is a good option in its segment.